With their treasures in hand, the three of them took a seat in the back of the store, enjoying the silence as Tena learned all about new flavours, and the dangers of brain freeze.

Having never eaten anything that was so cold before, she had no warning when it first hit, and her paws flew to her head as she moaned in agony.

It was delicious, but dangerous. Ice Cream was a Chaos Element food.

"You need to eat it slowly. Ice cream teaches young dragons patience." Min explained.

Tena frowned at her bowl. "{Can't you just eat it all at once and only get one brain freeze?}"

"But then you only get to enjoy the taste one time instead of lots of times." The little dragon's eyes went wide. That was a life altering bit of wisdom, and the Green Dragon shared it so freely? She really was a good person.

Tena carefully licked more of the ice cream and let it melt a little on her tongue before closing her mouth. This method was better, but a little messy. She would retract her tongue next time, but not close her mouth immediately, to avoid brain freeze.

Then she saw how Cara did it. She turned the spoon and held it in her mouth for a moment so that it protected the top of her mouth from the cold, and that seemed to work. So that was how Tena decided to do it as well.

Min smiled as she realized that not only was the little one learning about ice cream, she was learning about utensils as well.

Baby dragons couldn't transform, as their human form would be helpless. But in that state, they normally only ate various forms of meat, and things that were already cut up, so they could just bite into them.

If they were feral, they would eat meat straight from the body of their prey. But even Karl wouldn't have the little ones hunting so soon, she assumed.

That was accurate, but not entirely true.

They were teaching the little ones hunting games within the Tiny World. But not against live animals, just as games, with food as the prizes. The young dragons needed to have their instincts rewarded so that they didn't get bored or confused, and that was one of the best ways to do it.

Every dragon hunted, and they all did it in their own way, building on the skills that their species was born with.

But today, not all of them would have to hunt alone.

While Cara had stolen one dragon for an adventure, the Beast Rangers were preparing their final round of bribes to try to convince the Swamp Dragons that becoming a bonded partner was the best option.

They were among the strongest beasts that the Rangers could bond, nearly as strong as the actual dragons around them, and wickedly intelligent for a non-sapient species. They were smarter than hounds or even cats, but not quite at the level of something like a Chaos Badger or Demonic Spider that could speak common languages or understand complex relationships. However, that would quickly change if they were bonded to the Rangers.

Just like what had happened with Hawk and the others, the bond would increase their intelligence, and they would be the most incredible partners that the Rangers could hope for.

The increase might not be on the same level as what Karl's beasts saw. The increase that the normal beasts got from Rangers was far smaller. But their bonded partners were definitely smarter than usual, and there were some known cases of Rangers who bonded Dolphins and certain ape species having a companion that could speak.

Oddly, the Dolphins learned to speak Elvish, not an aquatic language, according to the records that Karl had found while researching the subject.

That seemed odd, but the cases where there was an advanced Ranger Class who bonded a Dolphin were sailors, fishermen in particular. So, it might have just been that they were speaking Elvish and that was naturally the language that the Dolphins learned from them.

There wasn't enough detail in the books to be clear, except for the fact that they had learned to speak out loud, not just in the minds of their bonded partners.

Karl mentally checked on Cara, to be sure that she hadn't forgotten that she brought one of the Hatchlings on an adventure, and then Shadow Stepped over to join the Rangers at the swamp for their attempts to bond their new partners.

The Swamp Dragons were more plentiful than the Beast Rangers who could bond them, so there would be no competition in that direction. However, there was some concern that the hatchlings might see it as a competition and begin fighting each other.

That would be disastrous for their little social experiment, so Karl intended to join them to prevent things from getting out of hand.

The hatchlings gathered around him as Karl arrived. He was the one who trained big sister Remi, so he was practically an Uncle to them. His words were important.

"Good morning everyone. We have these lovely ladies here, both Lizardfolk and Demon, who would like to join with you as partners, the same way that Remi and the others are bonded to me.

Now, they're not quite as cool as I am, but they will treat you very well and help you grow big and strong." Karl began.

The Rangers rolled their eyes at Karl's blatant provocation, but didn't say anything, as he wasn't wrong. Not only was he more powerful, but his class was infinitely cooler than theirs by nearly every metric.

Even the regular Windspeed Hawk that he had taken in had turned into a Dark Flame Phoenix, while their first beasts had not evolved at all since bonding.

Not that the Dire Wolves needed much.

"Does anyone have any questions?" Karl asked.

All the Swamp Dragons began growling and snapping as Karl listened carefully, and the Rangers struggled to make any sense of them. The Beast Rangers did get a skill to help them understand animals, but with dozens of them speaking at the same time, it was nearly impossible to get details beyond body language and an occasional insight.

"Alright. Those who want to keep playing in the swamp can move to the back.

Those who think that Demons smell funny can move to the middle, and those who want to see how helpful a Ranger is in making them stronger can come to the front to meet your potential partners."

The Demons huffed in annoyance, then smiled at the Swamp Dragons.

They were not a native species to the swamp, so of course they smelled funny to the hatchlings.